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How to value old coins

Age

With coins, unlike other antiques, a coin that is 200 years old is still considered a fairly modern strike. Coins have been minted for over 2,000 years; the metal is durable, so an old coin is not hard to obtain, even at a reasonable price. We also sell such old Greek and Roman coins in our shop. The rule "the older, the more valuable" therefore does not apply.

Examples

• Rome, Philip I, 244–249, silver antoninianus — 900 Kč
• Bohemia, Vladislaus II Jagiellon, 1471–1516, Prague groschen — 250 Kč
• Czechoslovakia, 1918–1939, 5 heller 1924 — 400,000 Kč

Metal

The layman's assumption that gold coins are the rarest, and small bronze or copper ones the least valuable, does not hold. The metal only hints at which category a coin might fall into; the price is set mainly on the basis of other criteria.

Examples

• Franz Joseph I, 1848–1916, gold 10 corona 1897 — 3,000 Kč
• Franz Joseph I, 1848–1916, silver 1 corona 1906 — 4,000 Kč
• Franz Joseph I, 1848–1916, copper 1 fillér 1914 — 8,000 Kč

State of preservation

As in other fields, with coins and banknotes the better the state of preservation, the higher the price. Even a very common coin in flawless condition is usually valued more than a rare coin in poor condition.

Examples

• Czechoslovakia, 500 Kč banknote 1929, flawless — 5,000 Kč
• Czechoslovakia, 500 Kč banknote 1929, folded once — 2,500 Kč
• Czechoslovakia, 500 Kč banknote 1929, heavily used — 200 Kč
• Czechoslovakia, 500 Kč banknote 1929, torn, destroyed — 0 Kč

Rarity

The rarity of coins, medals or banknotes is determined by the number of pieces struck and, above all, by the number that have survived and are available on the collector market. Clearly, where supply is large and collector demand small, the price is low; where supply is small and demand high, the price is high.

Examples

• Czechoslovakia, 10 Kč 1930 — 130 Kč
• Czechoslovakia, 10 Kč 1931 — 130 Kč
• Czechoslovakia, 10 Kč 1932 — 130 Kč
• Czechoslovakia, 10 Kč 1933 — 40,000 Kč

The collector market

Further criteria seem unrelated to coins and other collectable material, yet they sometimes affect the price considerably. Chief among them are collector popularity and the economic situation of collectors and of the economy as a whole. The most collected coins are the most accessible and best known to us — coins of the Czech Republic and Czechoslovakia, and then coins that historically circulated in our territory. A common Franz Joseph coin sells better than, say, a rarer coin of Bolivia or Cameroon. It should also be noted that the popularity of collecting particular coins often shifts, and prices shift with it.

Examples

• Czechoslovakia, 50 Kč 1968, 50 years of the ČR, before 1989 — 1,500 Kč
• Czechoslovakia, 50 Kč 1968, 50 years of the ČR, today — 400 Kč
• Rome, Philip I, 244–249, silver antoninianus, c. 1995 — 600 Kč
• Rome, Philip I, 244–249, silver antoninianus, today — 900 Kč

Setting the price

The price is set taking all five criteria above into account, drawing on many years of experience and regular monitoring of the collector market. The idea that you can simply buy a catalogue and find it there, or the naive notion that you can find it online, is entirely mistaken.
In general terms, valuable coins are those that are old, rare, very well preserved and in demand. Frankly, I have not seen many of those. The least valuable, by contrast, are common coins in poor condition that few collectors seek — and unfortunately these make up the majority. All other coins fall somewhere in between, and it is quite hard to weigh up every factor accurately even for an expert, let alone for a layman.

What coins do you have at home?

Here are a few of the most common coins that have survived in almost every family. You may well pass them on to a beginning collector.

Maria Theresa

• copper kreuzers 1760–1765 — 20–40 Kč

Francis II

• copper 1, 3 and 6 kreuzers 1800 — 20–40 Kč
• copper 15 and 30 kreuzers 1806 — 20–50 Kč
• copper 1/2 and 1 kreuzers 1816 — 20–40 Kč

Franz Joseph I

• silver 1 corona 1893–1916 — 50–80 Kč
• silver 2 corona 1912–1913 — 100–160 Kč
• silver 5 corona 1900–1909 — 200–400 Kč
• Most minor coins 1892–1916 — up to 10 Kč

Czechoslovakia

• 5 Kč 1928, 1929, 1930 — 30–40 Kč
• 5 Kč 1938 — 10 Kč
• 10 Kč 1928, Masaryk — 130 Kč
• 10 Kč 1930, 1931, 1932 — 130 Kč
• 20 Kč 1933, 1934 — 150 Kč
• 20 Kč 1937, Masaryk — 150 Kč
• Minor coins of the First Republic — 5–30 Kč
• Commemorative coins 1945–1953 — 70–130 Kč
• Most minor coins 1945–1953 — up to 10 Kč
• Most minor coins after 1953 — up to 10 Kč